


Liberator Whiskey: "Not just a soldier, but a good man"

by Entropic_Wren



Series: "Every Time A Jaeger Falls" [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Character Study, F/M, Gen, Original Jaeger - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 04:17:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20558102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Entropic_Wren/pseuds/Entropic_Wren
Summary: Harry would never call himself a good man. Asshole? Yes. Good? No. Survival influenced his decisions. Regardless he wouldn't go down without one final swing.One last successful battle for Liberator Whiskey. That's all he wanted.Lies. He wanted to come back from this. He so desperately did.





	Liberator Whiskey: "Not just a soldier, but a good man"

Harrison ‘Harry’ McRae grew up in Brooklyn, with his single mother balancing three jobs on one hand and raising him on the other. As for his father… he was never talked about. Which the dark-haired male didn’t care about – if he ever met the guy he probably would have served a right hook for making his mother cope with everything alone.

He would be the first to acknowledge he wasn’t the most sparkling examples of a person; smart in a few fronts and just plain dumb in others (like picking the wrong fights). He, especially as a teenager, was an asshole. Made up of a smart mouth that got him into trouble, mixed with strong opinions which made people wary about him, and a temper that only a select few could reign in. Ironically he had found one like that by being on the wrong side of them.

Lexis took none of his antics in the form of delivering that punch he wanted to deliver to so many other people, and from there it escalated until they were both sitting in front of the principal’s office. They probably were a sight to behold two fourteen-year-olds sitting next to each other but trying very hard to not look at each other. Regardless, somehow, during that wait they came to an understanding – their lives were both shit, and they had issues, but there was no point in being each other’s enemy.

Back then though he wouldn’t have phrased it like that; more ‘her right hook is too mean to counter and I value my jaw thanks.’

Lexis ended up being his foot in mouth filter, whacked sense into him before he had even said what he thought. As a trade-off he kept people and their stupid bias’s away from her, often taking the fall because at times it seemed like a white-boy was treated kinder than a black-girl… especially with certain teachers.

Over time Harrison McRae and Lexis Williams became inseparable, one was usually found getting the other would of the fire.

When school was over he enlisted… not because it was the right thing to do but because he had to pay for college somehow. It was survival. He goes to college, he looks employable, he goes to military service he looks even better and the cost is paid.

From there he could aim for a job and get him and his mother out of the more questionable side of Brooklyn.

Lexis took one look at his plan and with a raised eyebrow signed up as well saying ‘someone has to protect your stupid ass.’  
Two years into it and his well-organized plan began to go sideways, chatter began to circle about Trespasser the ‘manifestation of a hurricane’ as some called it. It came, destroyed so much and died. While everyone moved on in their ways, one look at Lexis told Harry that she hadn’t.

Then Hundun happened. Then Kaiceph.

Then Scissure…

It was getting hard maintain in narrow vision, especially when despite finally having he funds for college Lexis had grabbed him and dragged him to the Pan-Pacific Defence Corps and signed up. The Irish-American kept telling himself it was because the pay was good, and good pay meant he could move his mother quicker. That depended on if he became a pilot.

If he did succeed he confidently betted on Lexis being his co-pilot. They had had each other’s backs for years, knew well what the other was thinking and knew how the other thought. It was the safest of bets. Which meant that hearing a different name be called out when Lexis was being paired stunned him.

Apparently, while likeness was a good indicator for drift-compatibility; they were too alike, too strong-minded to work smoothly together.

And that left him an annoyed ball of internal frustration watching as Lexis and Audrey were introduced to each other, handed their test suits and their uniforms. He watched as the African American woman walked off with the Native-America/Japanese heritage woman and were acquainted with their jaeger; Sierra Sovereign.

His meeting with his co-pilot it was a bit of a mess. Timothy Fear was more of the silent type, and Harry had no idea how to deal with the silent ones. He associated the guy with ‘timid’ and ‘soft-spoken’ … or that was until Tim had absolutely wiped the floor with him forcing the Irish-American to evaluate everything he thought he knew about the guy.

Tim was witty, blunt, and very calculating… early social interactions though he was a mess. And his mess brought out a new sort of mess out of Harry. It seemed that was a sign of their compatibility; they were both terrible at the human interaction thing.

It really showed when they were asked to name their jaeger and in a blind panic Tim took an idea from a postcard and he took an idea form a nearby bottle – ‘Liberator Whiskey’.

But after a long time of training, Harry started to understand there was more to it than that (never cottoning on to how Tim always manipulated his strong-headedness into a different direction). Over time the dark-haired male was able to accept his new partner and in fact, got closer to him than he had been with Lexis.  
Somehow though, the PPDC’s PR department read ‘Brooklyn’, ‘Single mother’ and ‘Enlisted’ and thought that they had a ‘Steve Rogers’ in their hands.

Oh, how wrong they were. 

But that didn’t matter, Harry had to tow the image of ‘a good man’ mixed with ‘bachelor’… at least his dear co-pilot had to suffer with him on that. Learn how to smile, how to smirk, what were the right words to say, learn the best way to hold yourself to appeal to the public.

Hilariously Tim made him secretly break the bachelor image. The blond took one look at him pinning at the Strike Troops mechanic and literally blackmailed him into talking with her. If Tim had had the chance of doing the best man speech during a reception he probably would have taken credit for them getting together… and he wouldn’t have been wrong. 

If it wasn’t for Tim, Harry wouldn’t have been able to spend half the time he did with Katie, wouldn’t have been able to sneak out and get married without the public knowing. He owed Tim a lot, which is why he was determined that when his baby girl came along that Tim was one of the god-fathers (two god-fathers and two god-mothers… just in case).

He still remembered vividly the experience of Katie going into labour… while he was fighting a kaiju. The moment that Kaiju was down he was rushing back to base and scrambling down the halls still in armour only being able to repeat in his head ‘please don’t be too late’ while Tim was following behind shouting apologies to the technicians that were supposed to help them take off their suits.

He somehow was able to reach Katie in time to hold her hand to little Chloe came into the world. One look and Harry had melted, falling hard for those dark curls (pouting a little internally that she didn’t have her mother’s flame-red hair) and fair skin.

…He thought maybe he could understand why his father walked, or at least forgive… but the moment he was able to cradle his baby girl all the came to mind was swear to never be like him, to be there for every milestone and struggle Chloe would have in her life.

But now here he was spending his seemingly last moments cursing the world and fate as they aimed for the neck… and the Kaiju aimed for the head.

He'd never get to say that goodbye Roger's did...


End file.
